Photo from the Seattle Bach Festival.
In last Tuesday’s (12/31) Seattle Times, Thomas May writes, “For Tekla Cunningham, music happens in the connections—not only between the notes but between the humans who produce and experience them. A leading figure in Seattle’s early music scene … Cunningham has been reimagining how she and her fellow musicians in the region can forge new connections to offer audiences what the Seattle Bach Festival describes as ‘a portal into a world of beauty, passion, joy, learning and community.’ Cunningham is the founder and director of the brand-new Seattle Bach Festival, which will launch its inaugural season with a celebratory concert of orchestral and choral music by its namesake, Johann Sebastian Bach … Along with a performance at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle on Jan. 12, SBF is bringing the program to venues in Lynnwood and Tacoma. Starting a new performing arts organization in the current environment is, to say the least, a risky endeavor. But Cunningham is convinced it’s essential: ‘In our postpandemic reality, there is so much to do in the rebuilding of community bonds, and music is a very powerful and healing way to do that…. We want to offer high-level performances of baroque masterworks that support musicians in our community and bring people together.’ ”
